Administration Announces Suddenly They Will Cut Off Payments to Providers
ALTON – After repeated assurances from Bruce Rauner that state workers would continue to get paid despite the continuing budget impasse, his administration’s Department on Aging has issued a letter reversing course. The agency letter informs providers (Including Senior Services Plus) in the Community Care Program (CCP) that payments will not be processed for services performed since July 1st – the day Rauner’s government shutdown began – and will not be paid until the impasse is resolved.
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This declaration by the Rauner administration contradicts a verbal understanding between CCP providers and agency staff, while flying in the face of consent decrees requiring the state to pay these providers.
The agency letter politely asks CCP providers it informs of the cutoff to “please continue normal operations” in the interim.
Gov. Rauner’s payment cutoff is just the latest salvo in his ongoing war against home healthcare and its providers. Rauner previously announced cuts to homecare programs that would end services for 50,000 Illinois seniors and people with disabilities, jeopardizing their health and independence—and likely forcing them out of their homes into more expensive nursing home care.
“Gov. Rauner is engaging in relentless attacks on critical services that provide a lifeline to our state’s seniors and people with disabilities, and now he has escalated that war to include their providers,” said Bob Thieman, executive director of the Illinois Association of Community Care Program Home Care Providers.
Senior Services Plus and other local CCP providers ask that the public call and voice their opinions to those in power: Governor Rauner (217-782-0244); Speaker Michael Madigan (217-782-5350); President John Cullerton (217-782-2728)
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